About Cal Skinner

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If candidates send me their literature, I’ll do my best to share it with a broader audience on McHenry County Blog. Same with press releases. I want this to be a place were candidates and officials can speak directly to their potential or present constituents.

I’ve found that the greatest viewership of this publication is in the 24 hours prior to election day. All sorts of people are searching for information.

Ads by the way are $50 a month, except for political campaigns during any part of the last month of a campaign, when they cost $100.

Yet there is a whole article and comments showing how you hid the fact that you were living at your girlfriends house when you submitted a BIASED appraisal to the board of review to get her taxes lowered. You never told them you had a relationship with her, and that it was your primary residence. (perhaps because you still lived in Lake Barrington where you were claiming your homestead exemption until you were caught doing that unethical practice as well.)

(1) There was no ethics violation, only biased personal conjecture. If I missed it, please cite it and your source.

(2) The appraisal had no impact on the sales price. The appraisal’s cover letter is dated 10/3/2011, 3 days AFTER the reported sale.

(3) The sale price was established by three competing offers which, when combined with the property’s 700+ days on market, fulfilled every definition of market value and constituted an arm’s-length transaction.

(4) As clearly pointed-out, the Board of Review used the sales price, not the appraisal, to set their assessed value. I will furnish the audio of that hearing to the Editor so he can post it on this forum if feasible. It also conveys the township assessor accepting the valid sale (after he woke-up and realized the weight of the data before him).

So, we have:
– a valid appraisal performed AFTER the sale,
– a valid appraisal that WAS NOT USED by the Board of Review,
– a valid appraisal that had NO IMPACT on the sales price and
– a valid appraisal of a property in which I have NO ownership interest.

All that piece of “investigative reporting” conveyed was that a valid appraisal of no consequence was performed!
Woodward and Bernstein better watch out…

I stand by my ethics.

Unlike the incumbent, I would never spend taxpayer dollars paying family members.

The incumbent took office 1/1/90.

Because he didn’t speak with them/ask them to stay, two experienced deputy assessors left: Ms. Kunde and Mr. Domagalski.

As of 2/8/90, the incumbent had hired his wife Carol and daughter Sherri. He later hired his other daughter Julie.

The incumbent’s wife was the highest paid hourly employee and all family members received benefits.

Between 1/1/06 and 12/31/12, the incumbent’s wife and two daughters accounted for 21% of the assessor’s payroll.

No Al Zielinski, you flatter yourself by pretending to be a winner, and everything I have seen of your campaign will make you a big loser in 3 weeks. Everytime you use the word “ethics”, you have lost all credibility due to the points documented about you from the First Electric Newspaper articles.

And, why is it that you are posting comments on blogs and on-line newspapers in order to clarify your issues/campaign!? Where are your volunteers, who will defend you? Your actions are hardly the place for candidate, let alone winning candidates. Again, you flatter yourself when in reality, you are cheapening yourself. Do what FEN’s editor said, and by an ad to get your point across if you have any. You do better for yourself to not post on blogs while you are a candidate — leave that to your supporters, if you have any.

And finally, let’s read what was on your D-1 vs. your primary opponent. He listed $2,000, and you listed a measely $515 & change. That’s nearly a 4 to 1 deficit you have against a six-term incumbent. Additionally, your opponent had to file his D-1 2 1/2 weeks ago (January 13), and you only did it when I pointed out we’ve seen no disclosure reports filed, and then bang, the next day, you filed your report.

And then, your chairman is a resident of the city of Chicago!? You couldn’t have a local resident serve as your chairman for your campaign? Filing that bit of information only showed again that you have no local support, then again, you barely have residency in the township.

And don’t think we didn’t notice who filed your D-1 as your treasurer, and signed her name on it. Echoes of ‘unbiased’ appraisal resonates when we think back to that Board of Review hearing she did, and your lack of disclosure before-the-fact that you had a personal relationship with her with the appraisal, though not used, was presented to them as ‘unbiased’.

“Properly motivated” means dedicated to honesty, accuracy, conformity with state and federal valuation statutes/guidelines, “customer service,” an exemplary work ethic and the common good of Grafton Township’s residents and businesses.

An upcoming press release will further clarify my position regarding nepotism (and favoritism).

Succinctly for now, an emphatic “No!” to both.

Regarding “mouthpieces,” I’ve always researched my positions before forming them, been proud of them thereafter and therefore willing to personally and publicly state and stand by them.

Nobody can state/defend my positions better than I. Nor should they.

I’d raise the issue in its obverse: why hasn’t my opponent spoken for himself (or for his positions and record for that matter)?

From your post about the Board of Review, are we to understand that you are still claiming that your “significant other’s” 5 bedroom house on 1.5 acres of lake-front property is still only worth half that of all your neighbors?

Personally, I find that incredibly insulting, and disrespectful. I don’t care what the circumstances of the sale were, that house is worth twice as much as you claim it is.

To my knowledge, no member of the incumbent’s family has posted here on the subject of their employment so it’s impossible to call them anything (not that I would in any case).

As previously stated, the incumbent refused my FOIA request for his family’s employment history within his office so my beliefs are founded on township records.

If the incumbent’s family would post their employment history with the assessor’s office here, it would make all taxpayers very happy and show the incumbent shares my quest for transparency in the assessor’s office.